Lift export ban plea

1 September 2014


A fresh appeal has been made to the new government in Indonesia to lift the ban on the export of logs.

The Indonesian Forest Concessionaires Association (APHI) said that the ban had caused log prices from the natural forest to fall to about half the price of tropical logs on the international market.

Log exports were banned in 2001 after a reduction in export taxes led to excessive logging.

The APHI said selling prices for logs on Indonesia’s domestic market had fallen far below prices paid abroad.

The price in Japan for meranti logs was three times that of prices in Indonesia.